Every major advance in technology has brought an equally major shift in how we interact with technology.
Think about how easily we now strap on a headset and experience virtual realities when 100 years ago, viewers ran away in genuine fear when a projection of a train came towards them on a screen. We’ve learned how to quickly adapt to new technologies, and with the rate of progress, that adaptation is happening faster and faster.
But what happens when the technology is trying to adapt to us? With the rise of chat bots and conversational design, we’ve got a whole new way of interacting with technology. And it has a whole new way of interacting with us.
How should a bot act? And how should we act when we interact with one?
Just like human conversations have rules set in place by social norms, situational context, and the level of your relationship, conversations with bots need that same level of structure.
When it comes to visual design, organizations create design style guides like gov.UK’s service manual or the U.S. Digital Services Playbook. But for bots? We’re still in the wild west.
While we’re still in the early days of bot design, Sebastian Krumhausen, CTO of Sure—an online assistant that helps you find restaurant and cafe recommendations that are environmentally friendly—has put together a proposed playbook for how bots built on the Facebook messenger platform should perform.
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Chatbots should make life easier 🔮
We expect computers to know things.
With a minimal amount of input from the user, the bot should be able to provide value by leveraging stored information. The bot should be aware, even anticipate the needs of its users and meet those needs with minimal friction. It should automate the kinds of tasks users would normally do on their own like make a dinner reservation, add it to the calendar, and share it with friends.
A bot should save time and relieve stress by reducing friction and effort. Otherwise it is not much better than the website or app that came before it.
The bot should introduce itself 💁
A bot should always introduce itself and explain what it can do.
As with any other experience, there is a slight learning curve so you will need to onboard new users. You cannot expect your users to figure it out themselves. Use the first message to tell the users what they can do and suggest a first task.
Continuous support 🙏🏻
Continue to provide information and useful actions for a continued positive experience. Help and documentation should be accessible via the bot itself. Commands like ‘help’, ‘settings’, ‘start over’, and ‘stop’ seem intuitive to most users, so make sure your bot responds to them.
Always suggest the next step 👟
A bot should drive the conversation forward and at times even restrict it. Consider suggesting things to do, such as:
“Hey bot, book a table.”
“Table reserved. Would you like me to order an Uber?”
Bot interactions are a bit like the traditional e-commerce flows. We should constantly keep the user updated and help them move forward while avoiding overwhelming the user with a wall of information.
Start simple, but quickly add power features ⚡️
Not showing all features up front will make the interaction less wordy and faster for new users. Those first little wins are key.
Every extra bit of information competes with the relevant units of information and reduces their relative visibility.
But once a user starts to understand what the bot can do, you can gradually remove the training wheels and reveal more functionality. By continuously showing expert features, the experience will not only become better, but more efficient for comfortable users.
Interactions will be short, and that’s okay ⏲
Screen real estate is very limited on mobile devices so you’ll want to keep messages short and concise.
Also, users tend to skim (if they read at all). The bot should mimic human behavior. Long messages sent too fast are very hard to comprehend and will quickly become overwhelming. You don’t want the user to have to scroll back up to read the whole message.
Chatbots are part of the transitional journey from graphical UI to no UI. Contextual and previously stored information means that chatbots will be able to shorten complicated flows. Purchasing products and confirming appointments will be as simple as a single click or message.
A hybrid experience is the way forward 📱
Messaging apps let us remove most interface elements and reduce the experience to a simple message thread.
Chatbots live within messaging apps and users are already accustomed to communicating with friends using text, but text input is not efficient for all use cases. The GUI replaced the text-based terminal for a reason and some tasks like browsing and selecting is faster with touch or click.
Images and structured content is an excellent way to present information in a more interesting way. Over-reliance on structured messages, however, will feel artificial as you lose the conversational element.
Interactions should be simple 👌🏻
The number of paths a conversation can take increases the potential for dead ends and it’s better to limit the functionality and nudge the user down a particular path.
A simple solution is to use structured messages to guide the users. Rather than asking the end user to type ‘yes’ or ‘no’, show a structured message with two buttons.
Personality makes the experience more pleasant 👀
The content can stay minimal, but the medium doesn’t have to.
There is a clear distinction between the content and the delivery: the what and the how. When users chat with the bot, they expect clear answers. However, you can use the opportunity to add a bit of flavor to the message.
Brands often have a bespoke tone of voice; an e-commerce site might sound friendly whereas a lawyer would probably be more professional. Know your audience and choose a communication style that fits with your customers and brand.
Messaging apps also cater to different types of communication. Users of Sure have sent pictures, audio messages, and emojis. They share their feelings and emotions—positive and negative. They also use humor when chatting.
Bots exist in the same space where you would normally interact with a friend. If you remove the text and personality, are you not just left with a simple, inefficient mobile app?
Start with a focused chatbot 🚴
A bot needs a clear value proposition. Why else would you use it? A focused bot that does a few things right is more useful than ones that barely breaches the surface.
Also, natural language processing is hard. We still have a long way to go before machines fully understand the complexity of human communication. In the meantime, it’s better to build a focused chatbot. Chatting to a dumb chatbot is no different that using an automated telephone service — nobody likes those.
Reply, always 📝
The bot should always respond, even when it does not understand the user.
Saying “Sorry, I didn’t understand you” is better than ignoring the user — adding a bit of humor to the message is even better. Backend services might delay the bot’s response, in that case the typing indicator or a message like “Hey, still thinking about this…” is a delightful micro interaction and a simple feedback mechanism.
Bots offer us a new way to interact with technology, but there are still barriers in the way.
And while the technology is getting better and better, sometimes we need to return back to the basics and remember that the most important part of the bot experience is the real human being speaking to it.
The golden rule of bot design is to make it efficient. Make it easy to understand. Quick to respond. And understanding of the basic commands we all expect of each other. Once you’ve got those covered, then the fun can start.
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Sebastian’s playbook originally appeared on Medium.
